Surveyor 4

NSSDC/COSPAR ID: 1967-068A

Description

This spacecraft was the fourth in a series designed to achieve a soft landing on the moon and to return photography of the lunar surface for determining characteristics of the lunar terrain for Apollo lunar landing missions. Equipment on board included a television camera and auxiliary mirrors, a soil mechanics surface sampler, strain gauges on the spacecraft landing legs, and numerous engineering sensors. After a flawless flight to the moon, radio signals from the spacecraft ceased during the terminal-descent phase om 17 July 1967, approximately 2.5 min before touchdown. Contact with the spacecraft was never reestablished, and the mission was unsuccessful. The original landing target was 0.4 N, 1.33 W, the impact site is unknown, it is possible the spacecraft exploded before impact.

The Surveyor program involved building and launching seven Surveyor spacecraft to the Moon at a total cost of $469 million.